It’s almost been a year and many of us* are still at home. Working from home, socializing from home and living our lives on a much smaller area than we may have done before. Regardless of what the future looks like and when it will feel completely okay to go on public transport, work from the office or go on weekend trips again, we will not go back to how it was before. And that’s a good thing.
“Just because it’s normal, does not mean it’s not insane.” – Eckhart Tolle
There was a lot in the “normal” that actually did not work optimally at all. I, for one, spent a couple of years flying around the Nordic and Baltic countries for a two-hour meeting in Oslo, followed by a three-hour meeting in Vilnius. It was completely normal, but also quite insane.
We all crowded together on different means of transportation, sometimes hours a day, to get to a physical place where we locked ourselves in an office to work a few hours and then back home again. We spent more time on the road than we spent in relationships, with those we most want to live our lives with.
Of course, the new normal comes with many challenges, not least for those who enjoyed the way it was, but there are also enormous opportunities in this. If we choose to see them and take advantage of them. We create our lives through our choices, our thoughts, feelings, behaviors and how we choose to respond to what happens beyond our control.
Now that you have the opportunity to decide more for yourself, over your time and your day, what do you want to do with it? When you can no longer blame the boss who should see that you work late or HR who should improve your work environment, all of a sudden the responsibility lies with you. And responsibility means freedom. The ability to respond.
What is a healthy work situation and a good life for you? If you go back a few steps from the everyday puzzle and look at the whole picture. How satisfied are you with what your life is like right now? What can and do you want to change?
When we choose to put all our focus on what is usually called the zone of influence, we quickly realize how much power we have over our own quality of life, regardless of life situation, and when we take back that power we also have access to an enormous power to change.
If you didn’t know, I work as an HR consultant and are currently looking at the new working life and what we need in the long run to be able to stimulate good results at work but also help employees to be sustainable and be well. Flexibility will be a competitive advantage and maybe it will finally be possible to live in the country and work in the city for a couple of days every other week?
The past year has probably pushed you to a little more introspection and reflection. What is really important to you? How do you want to live your life? Imagine you could design your own life (which you can!) – what would you change? What would get more space? What would have to give way?
You are responsible for your own life and you have the opportunity to influence your life and your quality of life through your thoughts, feelings, your actions and reactions. The power is yours. What do you want to do with it?
* I’m well aware that I’m not talking to everyone here. 50% of Stockholmers, for example, cannot do their job remotely and have not been able to do so in the past year either. And while the pace has calmed down for some groups, it has of course increased too much for others, not least our heroes in healthcare.